CHAPTER XIV. (Continued)

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 150, 17 April 1886, Page 3

CHAPTER XIV. (Continued)

"Yov are taking the fresh air, gentlemen If ifc were day, you could, eee from here the mountain and Tombelaine, seeming near enough to touch them with your hand, but at this hour everybody is in bed, and the lights extinguished." The impatient Captain was going to send off his two assiduous acquaintance, when the soldier uttered an exclamation of surprise. "What's the matter?" asked Chateaubrun, dryly. " Ah ! there is a 6re lighted upon Tombelaine I have been fifteen years in the service, and have never seen anything of the kind before " •' Aii," said the Captain, muttering. "We can no longer doubt it; they are there.' 1 " Our last hope is gone," sighed Sartilly. " No, I never saw a light there before," said the officer ; "it is not ple*sai»t at Tombelaine at night ; there is not even the end of a wall to shelter one ; and the fishermen would rather so six leagues over the sandy strand than sleep there.' " Well, one thing is certain, this fire did not burn up of itself," said Chateaubrun ; "and who do you think would encamp there but smugglers?" "A strong reason why 1 should go with you to morrow," "Hum! Those who want to hide do not light fires." " Oh, they are cunning, sir. Who knows if they have not come in a boat to leave the goods at Tombelaine, and are coming back to take them away the next high tide ?" "But where could i hey hide themselves, as you say the island is as bare a3 your hand ?" "But I have heard it said there were subterranean cavern?, where the monks of Mont Saint Michel buried their treasure." "Do you know any of these cave 3 ?" asked Sartilly, quickly. " I have never seen any of them ; but these brigands may have found them out. One thing is sure, I will take a look round there to-morrow ; but if they can put their hands on the hiding-place, they will have seized the greatest part of the prize." " We will aid you,*' said the Captain, leaning familiarly on the officer's shoulder, *• and the windfall may be better than you think. Let's go to bed now, while waiting for to-morrow's high tide." SartiUy followed his friend, not having strength to say one word, feeling so sure of the disaster that he almost renounced the wish of struggling against the fatality that pursued him, while Chateaubrun, thinking of this inexplicable fire, had not, however, given up all hope. They went back to the salt manufactory, where the guide had made a country bed with blankets. The friends threw themselves upon it before the lire. The Captain, only, succeeded in falling asleep, and dreamt that he met De Koreff in the subterranean cave, and beat him to death with the casket. Hl3 sleep was agitated, but it continued so long, Sartilly was obliged to shake him, to awake him, at eight o'clock in the morning. The Viscount had not closed bis eye 3 all night, going frequently to the embankment to see if day was breaking, remarking that the fire was no longer burning on Tombelaine. When the travellers left the miserable cabin, after paying liberally for the hospitality they had received, they dismissed their guide ; the tide had then been going down for more than an hour, and, from the top of the earthy mound that protects thia miniature Holland, they overlooked the sandy strand, and their eyes were first directed to Tombelaine. The scene had changed i s aspect ; tho sea, which on theae flat chores goes dowu with incredible rapidity, ha 4 left uncovered an immense extent of sand ; but water still surrounded the two Islands ; and it was a spectacle, seeing this quiet and grey water, that an invisible force seemed to draw into unknown abysseg, and the sandy bottom with its silvery rivers showing themselves gradually as the tide retired. A thin haze, that the wind dispersed, now and then floated around Mont Saint Michel in light, greyish vapor, but over Tombelaine the Bky was pure and the horizon clear. While the two friends were observing thia melancholy landscape, the faithful officer Appeared on the mound ; he had been to *£& the brigadier before starting, and his light, gay step announced hie freedom for the day. m " Well, gentlemen," he cried, as coon as he was within hearing, '*ate you still inclined to take your journey ?" "More than ever," said the Captain; * { we are ready to start at thi3 moment." "Oh, we can reach there without hurry • ing It will not be low tide for »n hour ; but if you want to visit the Mont, there is no time to be lost ; there are so many things to bo seen there -the knight chamber, the clofeters, the wonder, the dungeons." , u 1 "We will begin by Tombelaine, interrupted Chateaubrun, hastily, who at this moment cared very little for Gothic architecture ; " and we can see Mont St. Michel afterward." . "It will be better to do so, for in a tide like this the sea comes back quickly, and if we were overtaken by it, we would have fcstter beds at the tavern on the Mont jtha* on the rocks of Tombelaine." "Apropos of your smugglers of last ,m«ht, do' you tbink you will meet them ?" Sartilly's heart beat violently while wait sng the soldier's reply, who little thought be wae listened to as an oracle. " I am sure I'll catch them if they come by shore, but I fear that little cutter I Bee yonder," he answered, pointing out a black spot on the eea. "It is too far off for me to see it well, although I have good eyes, continued the soldier; "but I'll wager that that bark comes from Jersey, and that the smugglers are going back the same way th f« y HerT my friend," said Chateaubrun, eagerly, holding out to the officer a fieldglass that he always carried in a leathern lase acrosa his shoulder. " You are more of a sailor than I am, and with this instrument you can tell us what it is.' There was a moment of agitated silence on the part of the two friends, while the fi oldier adjusted the tubes of the glasg, and was looking along the horizon for the| nayeterious bark. . "It is very etraDge," he said, slowly ; it is a little cutter with one man in it, and has its helm toward Tombelaine, bufc, with the tide against him, he will have difficulty in reaching the land before low tide."

" "Where does it come from]?" 11 That's more difficult to say ; but I have an idea that it in a cutter form Pontorson, that must have come down Conesom with the tide." Chateaubrun exchanged a look with Sartilly, who, turning very pale, could not help murmuring : " The eailor of the mail-coach ! All is lost !" " Look ! look !" continued the soldier, without remarking the effects his words had produced ; " look i they are still there, the cheating dogs." "Who? Of whom are you speaking?" cried the Captain. ! " The smugglers. I see them on Tombe lame as plain as I see you ; there are two of them there. Look towards the southern point of the island; they a'e making signals with a handkerchief." "To the man in the boat ; is it not so ?" "Ye?, to be sure; and I think he has raided something on his mast. Never mind," said the soldier, "I think we'll laugh at them yet." 41 . augh !" cried Chateaubrun, furiously, certainly feeling no inclination to do so. '* Yes, the tide is going down rapidly, and in half an hour I defy the bo«t sailor in Granville or Cancale to land at Toinbelaine, and the man who guides the helm of that cutter looks to me like a fresh-water sailor." " What will happen then ?" "It will happen that the boat will run aground, and it cannot be got off; at all events, the smugglers will not be able to embark, and if we do not 1039 our time, we will take them at Tombelaine like rats in a rat-trap." "Let's start," cried the Captain, in a tone of command. " Suppose I go first and tell my brigadier ?" said the officer. " Come with us. Your share of the prize wiil be larger. I promise to explain all to your chief," said the Captain. The soldier, fascinated by Chateaubrun's authoritative manner, hesitated no longer, and ollowed Sartilly, who was already running oTer the sand. As for the Captain, he had jumped over the sloping embankment in three leaps, striding over tho hore like the oldest fisherman of the bay.